Yamaha Motor Canada Presents The Monday Gate Drop

Good day, and welcome to another edition of the Yamaha Motor Canada Monday Gate Drop. I hope everyone had a great weekend, and if you’re reading this from the USA, I trust your Thanksgiving weekend was a good one.

Down in the USA, this past week was the iconic race at Gatorback Raceway, the 2020 Thor Mini O’s. Despite the Canada/USA border restrictions, there were a number of our fast riders down in Florida competing against the Americans. This event is split into two segments as the first part of the week is spent on a SX track, while the second part of the week in on the famous outdoor track. This track has been around for a long time and back in the 1980s and 1990s, it used to host the opening of the Outdoor Pro Nationals. This Pro National used to take place in early March and was usually between the Atlanta SX and the Daytona SX. It’s hard to even imagine how that schedule would work in racing today. I just can’t picture today’s pro riders and teams interrupting their SX series to race on lone outdoor national and then go back to SX the following weekend? I guess that is why it doesn’t happen anymore. 

Back in those days several Canadian pro riders who spent a lot of time training in Florida in the winter would show up at Gatorback and race the national. Riders like Ross Pederson, Carl Vaillancourt, JSR, Jason Frenette, Bill Wallin, Ryan Gauld, and myself (just to name a few) would brave the Florida heat and rough track just to be able to get some racing in. This race was always a challenge as most of us hadn’t been down riding for that long and we weren’t in great shape yet, and we certainly didn’t have our bikes set-up yet. My best race there was in 1996 when I had spent the winter racing a few USA SX events as well as few overseas SX races in Germany. I showed up to the Gainesville National in race shape and battled for a Top 20 finish in the 250 class in both motos. Since 20th place was the final points-paying position it was quite the dog fight for the entire moto. I recall thinking that I was riding really well and had some great flow going on the rough and choppy track when around the 20-minute mark I got the blue flag waved at me, indicating that I was about to be lapped. At first, I thought it was a mistake as I couldn’t believe that I was getting lapped. But then I got another blue flag waved at me, so I glance behind me to see Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emig engaged in a fierce battle for the lead. At that point, I moved over and let them pass me. They were going so fast that it made me rethink how good I was riding. I quickly realized that I indeed had a long way to go if I wanted any kind of great finish at Gatorback Raceway. Anyway, at least I was able to race on this famous track and it was great to see our Canadian riders battling hard this past week at the Mini O’s. For all results here is the link to the final results: THOR Winter Olympics / Mini O’s – Trackside Online Results (resultsmx.com)

Out in beautiful British Columbia, Future West announced late last week that they will not be running any more points-paying rounds in the Future West AX Championships. This means that the riders who were leading the points after Round 6 are now considered the Champions for 2020. I want to wish all of the champions congratulations, winning an AX title is not an easy thing to do at any level. So much can go wrong in the tight confines of an arena that it makes being consistent incredibly challenging. One bad start, one crash, one bad race can ruin your title hopes. In the pro classes, it was Casey Keast who took home both championships, capping off a great rebuilding year for the young and talented Husqvarna rider. As I’ve mentioned in previous Monday Gate Drop’s, I believe Keast to be one of the most talented young riders we have in this country. Unfortunately, injuries and a slight lack of focus at times have impeded his progress since he turned pro. But 2020 was a great year for him and we all saw not only his usual speed and talent but also a maturity to his riding that hasn’t been there before. The skies the limit for this kid and I’m looking forward to seeing him challenge for more titles moving forward. Here are the final series points standings: Future West – Trackside Online Results (tracksideresults.com)

Also last week, the Red Bull Thor KTM Racing team officially announced that Jess Pettis will be racing the 250 East Series in the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross Series. For the next two months, Jess will also be training at the Baker’s Factory and will be under the watchful eye of Aldon Baker, Seth Racick, and Mike Brown with the rest of the KTM and Husqvarna Factory riders. This is obviously a great opportunity for Pettis as he will be spending his day’s training with some of the best riders at the top training facility in the world. Beginning tomorrow, I will be reaching out to Pettis each week for an update of his progress as well as hopefully a few cool stories of what goes on at the Baker’s Factory. If all goes as planned I believe that this experience will be a career changer for Pettis as it will most certainly take him to the next level. At his young age, his learning curve is steep and he’s not afraid to push the limits. If he can remain healthy, I think he’ll be battling for Top 5’s in SX in 2021 and that will no doubt lead to even more doors opening. Either way, this off-season training program is great preparation for his rookie 450MX season in Canada next year. 

Well, that is it for me this week. I hope everyone has a great week as we welcome in December and the lead up to Christmas. I’m hearing that the 2021 Triple Crown Series Schedule is almost complete so that will hopefully be out soon. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments please email me at chris@mxpmag.com.